162000 advance demo (www.mp3.com/16)By: Jeb BraninYou can just about count on one hand bands that are as cool as 16. After nearly a decade of pounding nails into the aural cavities of extreme music fans worldwide 16 are demo-ing a new batch of tunes that clearly demonstrate that (unlike most bands) they are not mellowing with age. If anything they are getting more intense, more angry and more raging. Although often lumped in with the extreme sludge bands, 16 are really a beast of several configurations. Yes, they have the anvil pounding heaviness and distortion of sludge but they are also deformed and ugly like good noise-rock bands. They have the high quality song writing and classic guitar raunch of punk rawk 'n roll but also sport a metal infatuated underpinning that get the ole' neck a thrashing. They may be blood brothers of the likes of EYEHATEGOD but they are the ugly stepchilden of FLIPPER as well. How any extreme music fan can possibly NOT be blown away by this is beyond me. Every time I slip this disc in I end up cranking the volume all the way up and forgetting the world around me... like I am wrapped in a cocoon.... a cocoon made of glass shards and barbed wire.